Stock size matters more than vessel size: The fuel efficiency of Swedish demersal trawl fisheries 2002–2010

Friederike Ziegler and Sara Hornborg

Marine Policy, 2014, vol. 44, issue C, 72-81

Abstract: Fisheries management determines how much of each stock can be landed when, where and how fishing is permitted. It has been identified to strongly influence the environmental performance of the fishing industry, including fuel use. As fuel data for fisheries is scarce, especially on a detailed level, the aim of this study was to develop an approach for utilizing fleet-wide fuel data to estimate the fuel use of individual fisheries and mapping how fuel efficiency in Swedish fisheries is influenced by management. Swedish demersal trawl fisheries were studied between 2002 and 2010. Results show that the overall fuel efficiency has improved and interesting patterns between different fisheries and vessel sizes emerged. The difference in fuel efficiency per kilo landing between large and small trawlers was generally small, unless catch capacity was lowered e.g. by selective grids. Stock rebuilding was shown to be highly important for fuel efficiency, as fuel use was inversely correlated to the biomass of eastern Baltic cod. However, rebuilding can also lead to trade-offs e.g. in the case of selective trawling, where protection of depleted stocks comes at the cost of higher fuel intensity per landing. Finally, tax exemption of fuel use in fisheries was shown to maintain inefficient fisheries. These results could be used to reduce overall environmental impacts of fishing further by incorporating fuel use as an additional aspect into the fisheries management system.

Keywords: Fuel use; Fisheries; Demersal trawling; LCA; Grid; Baltic Sea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:44:y:2014:i:c:p:72-81

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2013.06.015

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